Blackwater Out of Potrero

Victory!For many months the community of Potrero has protested the ambitions of Blackwater, the company that serves as one of the major American contractors in Iraq, to build an 842-acre facility in Potrero, California. Today, the community was surprised to learn that Blackwater decided to dump the project.

Brian Bonfiglio, Vice President of Blackwater West, wrote to them. I saw the letter coming as a pdf from a mass SDCPJ e-mail. I don’t know how to link pdfs to this site but this article misquotes Bonfiglio’s statement by a tad: “Although our project would have brought a great benefit to San Diego County — providing local, state, and federal law enforcement with access to low-cost superior training facilities while bringing much-needed jobs to the area — the proposed site plan simply does not meet our business objectives at this time.”

“It’s great news for the community of Potrero,” said Carl Meyer, the Potrero planning committee’s new chairman, according to the San Diego Union Tribune. “I think Potrero will start to rejoice tonight. We’ll have a party.”